People urinate when frightened they say but I saw that with my own eyes at ‘SundayTimes’ office – Death threat to Iqbal Athas

By a former Intelligence officer of the forces

(Lanka e News -03.June.2018, 11.45PM) In order to pay the debts incurred owing to 1965 elections the name of late D.A. Rajapakse was sold. On another occasion , the ancestral abode- Medamulana house had to be leased out.

As Medamulana house could not be saved after the leasing out, the Rajapakse family was evicted by the Fiscal. It was a close pal of D.A. who came to the rescue of the destitute and desperate Rajapakse family at that time . He paid the arrears and got the house released for Rajapakses.

In November 1967 , D.A. breathed his last.

When he died nine children were left in the lurch within Medamulana house. With the sudden demise of D.A. ,Mahinda’s family faced acute financial hardships .Mahinda based on his GCE O/L results secured a job as an assist. Librarian at Vidyodaya library. His monthly salary was Rs. 201.00 and managed to get this job based on political connections.

When Late Mrs. Sirimavo arrived at Medamulana for D.A. ‘s three month dhana the future political destiny of Rajapakses was discussed. Following the dissolution of parliament in view of 1970 general elections , Sirimavo offered an opportunity to Mahinda to contest Beliatta electorate.

Mahinda obtained a disaster loan from Vidyodaya University to spend for elections. Mahinda’s loan amount was equal to his one year ’s total salary, and with that he went into action as Beliatte candidate . Mahinda who won was appointed as a member of parliament. All this information are contained in Mahinda’s “Kurahan satakaya “ story book.

Gota cringed and crawled …

Though Mahinda disdainfully calls Sirisena as a grama sevakaya , it is to be noted Mahinda began his career from a worse position than that . That is as an assist. Librarian.

Gotabaya joined the forces as a Cadet officer not based on his merits but because Medamulana clan was begging before the officers of Sirimavo. Gotabaya has barely passed the GCE O/L. His performance and poor marks he obtained during the Cadet course are testimony to his incapability.

After passing out he was assigned to the ‘Rajarata Rifle force’

Gotabaya who fled the country in fear of the war to America lived a most poverty stricken life . His favorite occupation was cringing and crawling before his benefactors. He bought a wine bottle priced at US $ 2.00 only once a month. During the 15 years he spent in the U.S. he never visited his motherland , let alone thought of it. If he ever took a phone call to Sri Lanka , that was once in a blue moon. All those drawbacks were because of his dire impecunious state .

It is thereafter he began gobbling in billions..

Prior to elder brother becoming the president and Gotabaya being appointed as defense secretary , decisions regarding purchase of weapons was made by the forces. Even the special unit that was launched for transactions pertaining to arms was within the forces.

Sri Lankans who had language literacy in Russian , Chinese. Latin, Israel languages were assigned as authorized officers to this special unit. Corruption if any , was not that much before Gota ‘s time.

The robbery was in hundreds of thousand rupees and confined to one section only. No sooner Gota came in , than he did away with the discretion of the officers in regard to weapon deals and dismantled the service of language translators . Gota who brought everything under his discretion and made decisions unilaterally began his favorite pastime - robbing in billions.

In 2006, he collected a sum equivalent to U$ $ 17.8 million (approximately) in installments from the general treasury to purchase 4 MiG jets and 3 planes . But to the Ukraine Co. which supplied them he paid only US dollars 7.2 Million.

While pretending it is a G to G transaction( between two states) Gota made payment to Belimissa Holdings in London ( another spurious Co. of Ukraine Co) after deceiving the cabinet and parliament . So far no one had been able to search and find that Co. Therefore Gota had planned it and gobbled nearly US dollars 10 million. These have all come to light by now with cogent and copious evidence. All what needs to be done now is hearing the case .

How Iqbal Athas was subjected to murder threats…

As a rule the only dream of the second in command of the forces is to somehow become the chief by hook or by crook. It was a common practice at that time to pass the files which can militate against the chief , by the second in command of the forces to Iqbal Athas who wrote the defense column in Times newspaper . The changes that were effected to positions in the forces was the outcome of Athas’ situation report from Colombo.

When Gota ‘s MiG Jet deal was put through , Harsha Abeywickrema was the second in command of the Air Force. He was a very close pal of Ranil. Hence it can be gauged how the original files of the MiG jet robbery went into the hands of Athas.

With the exposure of Gota’s MiG jet robbery by Athas , Gota was most panic stricken and guilt ridden. W.G. Gunaratne of Lankadeepa newspaper was the one who wrote Athas’ articles in Sinhala. Gota’s colossal theft and treason became the hot topic of discussion even in the rows of shops and boutiques in the villages .When Siripathy and Mangala also questioned this in parliament Gota’ s position became most precarious , and he was most ruffled. Weerawansa who is today washing the stinking ‘lankot’ after sniffing it of Gota was then with his JVP bosom pals. The only saviors for Gota were Henda ‘s National intelligence division and the white Van abductors.

By then 14 media personnel had been murdered.

Even by that time 14 media personnel including Tamilnet Sivaram , Sudar Oli Sugeetharajan , Sampath Lakmal of Sun dina had been murdered, and for several others the net has been thrown to trap them. Victor Ivan too was in the hit list. The contract to silence Athas was entrusted to the writer.

Accordingly the writer visited the Sunday Times office . On the day the writer went to meet Athas , Sarana Gunawardena a relative of Rajapakses and chairman of Lotteries Board has organized a demonstration in front of Athas’ residence against him. They were furiously berating him as a pro Tiger supporter .

The writer who visited Athas’ office first met W. G. Gunaratne , the writer in Sinhala of Athas’ articles. He was told to immediately stop the exposure of the MiG jet deal which was undermining the self confidence of the forces.

Gunaratne’s answer was , ‘I am just an employee in this newspaper office. Shouldn’t I do what the establishment says ?….’

As soon as he said that , the writer turned towards him and sound of a weapon ‘ cocking’ within the bag of the writer was heard. With that what followed was gloom and Gunaratne was profusely sweating. It is said an individual who is extremely frightened urinates . That was witnessed with the own eyes at Sunday Times office.

Gunaratne then promised none will write a word about the MiG jet deal. The writer after reminding him of the fate that befell Raviraj who did not heed such a warning issued to him , left the Sunday Times office.

Within a few hours , owing to this incident the Colombo High Commission office was in a mournful state .At the same time bitter criticisms were mounted against the government over the media suppression and oppression Mahinda who threw a party for Lakadeepa editor Siri Ranasinghe to curry favor ,slyly and silently got the CCTV recording deleted. The investigation into the murder threat also halted in the tracks. Since that day neither in the Sunday Times nor in the Lankadeepa , the MiG jet deal was reported- not a word was written . However , Lasantha began his writing from the point Athas stopped.

By a former Intelligence division officer

Keerthi Ratnayake

Next : The murder of Amith Muneendradasa Technological advisor for procurement of weapons for the three forces.